December 5, 2010

39 comments:

It's interesting that electric trains are popular elements in displays like this, but have pretty much disappeared as highly desired Christmas presents.

Watching a Christmas movie, my daughter commented on how anachronistic it is that Santa's elves are still depicted making toys that no kid wants anymore: rocking horses, tops, train sets, etc. (Granted some very small children like the wooden Thomas Train sets but that's a niche.)

I dunno, we just went to a Christmas Crafts fair with some of the finest artisans from across the country - and we came home with three simple wooden swords, a couple of simple leather 'swprd holsters' and two unpainted plywood shields.

They won't make it under the tree, the entire neighborhood has been playing swordfighter.

Electric sparks have been shown to cause a chemical reaction that converts harmless ordinary oxygen (O2) in air to toxic ozone (O3). [...] Since electric trains are most frequently operated indoors, they contribute directly to ozone in household air.

Therefore, effective immediately, toy trains that contain open-frame electric motors may not be sold or distributed in the United States. This restriction applies not only to toy locomotives that use motors for propulsion, but also motorized accessories such as tenders that simulate the whistle sound of a steam locomotive using a motor-driven fan to blow air through a set of chimes.

Rocking horses were severely limited in the EU a few years ago as well; only the smallest may be sold. I'm not sure whether this is also true in the US, though it wouldn't surprise me.

I don't know about the tops. The paint, perhaps?

(VW: topsa. I swear that thing is going to turn into SkyNet one of these days.)

As a child I was admonished for asking Santa for so many Christmas gifts when Korean children would be happy with a turnip. I thought that an odd gift, but one dared not question such advice prior to Christmas.

Given the recent FDA mandate, organic turnips may go the way of toy trains.

Christmas train displays are so much more interesting than the debate over 'trains to nowhere'. Whimsical, yes- I hope that the desire to construct what is basically an outmoded (specific-purpose?) method of point A to point B becomes another 'whimsicality' (sp). Our gov't just seems to have no end to the ways to spend money. Bridges to nowhere, trains to nowhere, flatulent cows, crucifixations of ants, it just doesn't end. If I may: "Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." - Ronald Reagan.

PS Electric trains are still sold in various hobby shops and such - I presume to people who remember them from their childhood, rather than kids, but that's how little kids would be exposed to them. Through grandparents and older aunts and uncles.

These trains are too slow, but they’re a start. First we need a lot of money for an upgrade, so that they can be Speed Rail. THEN, they need to be reserved for a very small percentage of the using public. BUT everyone needs to pay taxes to support them…remember, these trains may lose money, but it’s still cheaper to build them than cancel them…and don’t talk to me about Hot Wheels as an alternative to model trains!

You wouldn't think so, but it's really hard to keep an electric train going 24/7. We had that exact model on our gingerbread house here at the Hotel California. It was my job to keep it going. I couldn't. After about a week we had to give it up.

This model train set up reminds of the man next door when I was 10-11. He had a constantly expanding layout in his basement. He was a great guy, and we loved to hear his stories of WWII driving Sherman tanks in Normandy up against the German's weapons...no contest. Anyhow, he loved to have us come over and see his trains but he would never let us help or touch anything. They were his toy.

Electric trains and slot cars were set up in our basement. Loved them!! In fact, I loved them and played with them way more than my little bro, but still, they went to him when he left home because he was the boy. Sigh. : (

Hoping a puppy in the house this year won't derail my plans to set up a small train set to en around the tree. We shall see.